(127-131) cration to be their “reasonable service” and present their bodies living sacrifices to God. Pastors and teachers, however, should seek to keep continually before the Lord’s consecrated flock the high Scripture standard, realizing that many influences are continually at work to lower the standard of holiness and devotion. JOHN MORE THAN A PROPHET The multitude who stood about must have heard the message which John’s disciples brought to Jesus, and no doubt queried within themselves, if not audibly, Is John losing faith in Jesus as the Messiah? If John is a prophet himself, should he not be informed by God on this subject, without sending to inquire of Jesus? Does not this, in connection with the fact that John did no miracles, prove that John was not a prophet, but merely some sort of a reformer, possibly selfappointed? Our Lord seems to have detected such a questioning, and hence after John’s discipline were gone, so that his words could not be construed as a sop of flattery to hold John’s confidence, he delivered quite a eulogy upon his faithful forerunner, which we paraphrase thus: What did you expect in John—a weak, pliable character, easily swayed by every wind of doctrine and fancy, as a reed is easily swayed by the wind? Those who get such an impression respecting his character are deceiving themselves. On the contrary, he is a prophet, yea, more than a prophet—he is a special ambassador and messenger of God at this present time, to do an introductory work related to the kingdom which I am now preaching. He is referred to by Malachi the prophet (3:1). Indeed, I declare to you that there has never arisen a greater prophet than John, and yet I say to you that the least one in the kingdom-class 1s greater than he; for he does not belong to the kingdom-class at all, but to the previous dispensation—“the house of servants.” “The law and the prophets were until John” (and he is the last of the prophets), and since then ZION'S WATCH TOWER ALLEGHENY, Pa the kingdom of heaven ix preavhed, that now whosoever will of this divinely favored nation may press his way and gain an entrance into it and become a son of God.—John 12:1. Note in the text the clearnes: ot our Lord’s words respecting the distinction between the new institution which he was founding and the old institution founded by Moses, and which was then coming to an end, giving place to the new. The Apostle shows that the call of us Gentiles during this Gospel age to a joint-heirship in the kingdom as members of the kingdom-class is because those of the Jews ready to receive the kingdom favor upon the Lord’s terms were fewer than the predetermined number. Our call is to fill the places of those “natural branches” of the Abrahamic stock, by being grafted into and made partakers of the original root of divine favor ~—the Abrahamic promise—to be members of the seed of Abraham, in which as a kingdom-class all the families of earth shall be blessed with certain favors of knowledge and opportunity.—Compare Rom, 11:1-33; Gal. 3:16, 29. How highly we who belong to the new dispensation should value its privileges and opportunities, and seek to “make our calling and our election sure.” (2 Pet. 1:4-11) If those who were called with an earthly calling to be a “house of servants’ rendered but a reasonable service when they engaged in the Lord’s work zealously, as did John the Baptist, and have been faithful, how much more zeal and energy ought we to put forth who have been favored so much more highly! “What manner of persons ought we to be. in all holy conversation and godliness!” Let us remember that this “high-calling,” this “heavenly calling,” to joint-heirship with our Lord in the kingdom, is a very special and a very limited call, that it will soon end, and that so far as the divine revelation shows. it will never be repeated. In view of these things let us lay aside every weight, and run with patience the race set before us in the gospel, looking unto Jesus. the author, until he shall have become the finisher, of our faith_—Heb. 12:1. Vou. XXI = ALLEGHENY, PA., MAY 1, 1900 No. 9 THE MEMORIAL SUPPER Each year seems to add to the interest of the Lord’s people in the celebration of the great event which lies at the foundation of all our Christian hopes—the celebration of the death of “Christ, our Passover.” Each year the matter seems to be more clearly grasped by a larger number, and correspondingly the solemnity and holy joy proper to the occasion seems to be the more intense, and the overflowing blessing to be more pronounced. Many of the little companies of the Lord’s people who celebrated on the evening of April 12th have responded to our request for information respecting the numbers participating, and the measure of the Lord’s Spirit and blessing prevailing. From these reports we judge that the number participating this year was considerably more than last year. Though we have not heard from nearly so many, the totals are larger. We believe, too, from the letters that the meaning of the institution was very deeply appreciated, not only as marking the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, but also as marking the consecration of his people to be one with him in his sacrifice. The Allegheny church had a most blessed season, about 290 participating. We first reviewed the general meaning of the Passover, as it was instituted with the Jews, tracing the relationship between the typical Passover Lamb and Christ the Lamb of God, our Passover, and saw in the first-born of Israel passed over in that night a type of the church of the first-born, which God js passing over during this Gospel night. We saw that subsequently these first-born ones became the leaders of Israel as a whole, and their deliverers from Egyptian bondage, and we saw that the anti-type of that deliverance will be the ultimate deliverance of all who love God and who desire to serve him, from the bondage of the world and of sin, and of Satan, the antitype of Pharaoh, and that this ultimate deliverance would be during the Millennial age, when “the church of the first-born” ones will be associated with Christ in the Millennial kingdom. Next we saw how that the Jews had celebrated the type for over sixteen centuries, with no knowledge of the antitype, and yet that in God’s due time Christ, the antitypical Lamb, was slain on the very same day of the month that the typical Lamb was slain; and that on the very same day in which he and his disciples met as Jews to celebrate the typical Lamb and the typical passing over, our Lord instituted a new memorial, which would not look back to the type, but to him self, as the antitvpe. We noted also the appropriateness of the emblems which Jesus choose to represent his flesh and his blood; we saw that unleavened bread most beautifully illustrated the purity, the sinlessness, of our dear Redeemer, and that the cup, the fruit of the vine, represented his sufferings— not sufferings that were grievous, but joyous, endured willingly, gladly, on our behalf, and we rejoiced in these things. We considered how we were to feed upon the Lord in our hearts while using the bread emblematically—that we could feed upon his flesh in the sense of calling to mind the fact that only through his sacrifice could we have life, only by his becoming our substitute in death could we, as a race, be set free from the condemnation that was upon us through father Adam’s transgression. We considered the fruit of the vine, the symbol of our Lord’s blood, as the sealing of the New Covenant under which God, through Christ, could be merciful toward our imperfections, accepting our intentions, even though the weaknesses of the flesh might sometimes hinder us from attaining all the desired results. Then we viewed the matter from the other standpoint— the secondary one mentioned by the Apostle in 1 Cor. 10:16, 17, viz., that the entire church is one loaf, and that it is the duty and the privilege of all who have become members of the one loaf, the one body of Christ, to be broken in the service of the Head and in the service of each other, that thus we might have fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and ultimately be sharers in his glory. We saw that the cup of blessing with which we bless is indeed our communion or fellowship in the blood [sufferings] of Christ, our mingling of our lives with his life, our joining with him in “filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” We sought to enter into the very deep meaning of the beautiful symbol, and to have it in our hearts a power of God, leading us to keener appreciation of our dear Saviour, and to a keener devotion as his disciples, to walk in his footsteps. Then, after a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the living Bread that came down from heaven—for Jesus, who was not a condemned member of the human family, but a specially provided one, suitable to be our Saviour, our Bread, our Lifegiver, and for all the blessing which we have through his great sacrifice, we partook of the bread. After this we gave thanks for the cup, acknowledging that we have no righteousness of our own, even though all the past were forgiven, and that we could not hope to stand before God acceptably or [2622]
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